US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Iraq today to hail the defeat of Saddam Hussein as fresh bloodshed erupted at an anti-American protest west of Baghdad.
Residents of Falluja, 50 km outside the capital where 13 people were killed in a rally late on Monday night, said US troops shot dead two people during a demonstration this morning.
US Major Michael Marti said members of a convoy returned fire after shots were fired at them from a crowd outside a US command post. He said soldiers counted "potentially" two injured Iraqis.
Some local people believed as many as four people might have been killed and said the demonstrators had been unarmed.
A hospital official in Falluja said he had seen two young men who died of head wounds inflicted by US troops. "The number of killed was two. They were hit in the head," said Ahmed al-Taha, putting their ages between the late 20s and early 30s.
His hospital was treating eight wounded and other casualties were taken to a different clinic.
The bloodshed in Falluja provided a grim backdrop for the visit by Mr Rumsfeld, who arrived in Baghdad after starting his trip in the southern city of Basra.
Mr Rumsfeld was last in Iraq 20 years ago as an envoy of President Ronald Reagan. He held talks with Saddam as Washington sought to contain neighbouring Iran, which Iraq had invaded in 1980.
Rumsfeld was expected to see first hand how the reconstruction of postwar Iraq is progressing, although some towns and cities are still not fully under US control.
Leaders of Iraq's key political parties were due to meet in Baghdad tomorrow to discuss an interim authority for the country.